Venus, Bhambri edged out in Winston-Salem semifinal thriller

Michael Venus and Yuki Bhambri suffered a heartbreaking loss in the semifinals at Winston-Salem, losing 6-7(4) 6-2 13-11 to the Brazilian duo of Rafael Matos and Marcelo Melo.

Venus and his Indian partner were aiming to reach their first final since coming together as a team after Wimbledon and they came desperately close to achieving that, in a match that lasted for one hour, 48 minutes.

The duo were up 5-2 in the opening set, but let that lead slip and eventually recovered to triumph in the tiebreak, winning the last four points of it.

The Brazilians dominated the second set, reeling off four straight games from 2-2 to level the match.

In the third set super tiebreak, Venus and Bhambri had a match point at 9-10 on the Brazilians’ serve, which they weren’t able to convert.

The crucial mini break went the way of Matos and Melo at 11-11 and they won the following point to secure their place in the final.

Despite this nail biting loss, it has been a good week for Venus and Bhambri and by far the best since they formed this partnership and they’ll take that confidence into the US Open, which starts next week.